Our House
by padfootandprongsy76
Summary: Before Lily and James move in together, there's a lot of packing to do. James discovers some rather interesting muggle items.


**A/N** This was our submission for day 1 of Jily week on Tumblr. Enjoy!

Lily Evans had lived in the same house all her life. The light blue walls and view of her mother's vegetable patch were all she'd ever known. It had never seemed like anything special - not compared to Hogwarts or the houses of her witch friends, filled with magical contraptions and wallpaper that rippled and changed colour when you looked at it. She'd never looked at her own bedroom as anything other than ordinary. Though now she was moving out, everything seemed to take on a strange sort of significance. The windowsill wasn't just a windowsill anymore, it was the place where she'd tripped when she was ten and knocked herself unconscious for three whole minutes. Her bed was the place that at six years old, she had shown her first signs of magic, scared of the dark and able to turn on the lights just by being frightened enough. The dressing table was her go-to place during games of hide and seek, a place where Petunia never seemed to look – out of sisterly kindness or simply not knowing she was there, Lily wasn't sure.

Perched on the stool beside her dressing table was James Potter. The boy Lily had complained about countless times while sitting in this very room. Now the boxes of her things around his feet were a testament to how much her feelings towards him had changed. He had a silly grin on his face and was holding a teddy bear, making it hop comically across the top of the boxes in front of him. Lily shook her head fondly and said "if you hurt Jeremy, I _will_ change my mind about living with you."

"Wouldn't dream of it," James said, his grin widening as he patted the bear on its head. "Is Jeremy coming to live with us?"

"Of course," Lily said. She went back to sorting through her wardrobe, so James gently placed the bear inside one of the boxes and closed it up with a locking spell.

Since Lily seemed absorbed in folding her clothes, James hopped off the stool and stretched out on the floor, wriggling his way underneath Lily's bed. Almost immediately, he breathed in some dust and sneezed. "When was the last time you looked under here?" he called. "Because I regret to inform you that a dust monster has taken over and is holding all your stuff hostage."

"I'm sure the dust monster is no match for you," Lily laughed.

She placed a neatly folded skirt onto her growing pile then bent down to peer under the bed herself. Along with the ton of dust, she caught sight of an etch-a-sketch, an old 'Twister' mat, and several long forgotten tubs of Play-Doh.

"They're just old toys," she sighed, pulling out a bunch of the items nearest to her. "It probably all needs throwing away."

James shrugged, then realised she couldn't see him because he was halfway under the bed. "We can take it with us if you want; we've got enough room for it."

He heard Lily make a non-committal noise as he reached past what was either a toy doll or a Cornish pixie waiting to attack his fingers and grabbed a strange red plastic toy. Rolling out from under the bed, he sat up and wiped the dust off it. "What's this?" he asked.

"Hmm?" Lily looked up to see James holding a bright red, rather large water pistol between two fingers as if it might be something dangerous.

"It's a water pistol. You fill it up and have water fights in the summer. There should be a blue one somewhere too."

She reached back under the bed herself and felt around until her hand wrapped around the plastic handle of the other gun.

"So it's like the muggle version of aguamenti?"

"If you used aguamenti to rage water-war on your friends, then yes." Lily shrugged, standing up and walking around to the other side of the bed where James was. "But it's better, look."

She held the blue pistol out to him, "You fill it up here, at the tap, not with your wand, and you basically run around shooting the other person with as much water as you can, until you need to refill."

James looked up from examining the water pistol and grinned at Lily. "You know, I don't think I can have a thorough understanding of muggle culture unless I experience it for myself." He gave the blue pistol back to her and got to his feet, almost bouncing up and down with excitement. "Shall we?"

"Really?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow at James.

She was already backing away from him towards the door, holding the blue water pistol protectively behind her back.

"You know, I take these things very seriously, and whoever gets to the kitchen first has a clear advantage!" Grinning, she turned around before he could reply, flinging the door closed behind her so that James had to throw out his hands to avoid being hit in the face.

Lily raced down the stairs laughing, with James barreling down them behind her, shouting something about cheating and trying to kill him. They sped past her very confused mother and skidded to a halt in front of the sink, where Lily turned on the tap and forced her gun under it before James had a chance to unscrew the cap from his.

Lily had already filled up her pistol and rushed outside by the time James had undone the cap. He urged the tap to run faster and he watched out the window as Lily dashed across the lawn and out of sight.

Once his gun was full, he followed Lily outside, hesitating in the doorway as he scanned the garden. She was nowhere to be seen, so he took a tentative step outside, holding his gun out in front of him. He gave the trigger an experimental squeeze and was delighted when a jet of water shot out of it. He nodded at the muggle invention appreciatively, so distracted that he didn't see Lily creep out from behind the shed.

He yelled as the water from Lily's gun hit him in the chest, then ran after her, soaking her back before she could reach the shelter of the shed again. She squealed and turned back around to face him, but James hid behind a tree so her jet of water hit the trunk instead of him.

"Missed me!" he called, peering round the tree to look at her and instead getting a face full of water.

"I never miss!" She responded, laughing at the look of complete surprise on his dripping face.

Not expecting him to respond, she slowly backed away from him towards a better hiding place. But James recovered quickly, aiming his pistol at her face and only missing by a few inches when she darted to the side.

The early summer sun was warm on the back of Lily's neck, and James' shirt was turning see-through as they once again shot at each other from across the garden. James threw himself onto the grass to avoid a spray of water and Lily seized her opportunity - running to him before he could get up.

"No escape," she smirked, and promptly covered him with her remaining tank of water as he lay sprawled on the ground.

James shielded his face as she drenched him and then sat up, laughing. "Okay, you win. You're clearly superior at water fights."

He held out his hands so Lily would haul him to his feet, only to wrap his arms around her in a very wet hug. Groaning as the water soaked through her top, she poked him in the stomach until he let go, then flicked him with her hair as she tried to wring it dry

After unsuccessfully trying to wipe his glasses dry on his t-shirt, James stooped to pick up his gun. "That was fun," he said, smiling. "I think these water pistols ought to move in with us."

"I think so too." Lily agreed, taking James' glasses from his hand and hooking them back behind his ears. She leant up to kiss him, keeping hold of the wet fabric of his shirt to coax him back towards the house. "Which means we'd better get back to packing, so we can move into our house."

"Our house," James repeated, grinning like an idiot as he passed Lily's parents in the kitchen, leaving a trail of water behind him. "I really do like the sound of that."


End file.
